Inositol-requiring protein 1α signaling pathway is activated in the temporal cortex of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Accumulating evidence suggests that repeated seizures could induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Inositol-requiring protein 1α (IRE1α) is a vital pro-apoptotic molecule in ER stress, but it remains unclear whether the signaling pathway mediated by IRE1α is involved in human temporal lobe epilepsy. In this report, we investigated IRE1α-mediated ER stress pro-apoptotic signaling pathway in resected anterior temporal neocortex from 32 patients with intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy by immunofluorescence and western blot analysis. Our results indicate that chronic epilepsy induces ER stress, and IRE1α-mediated ER stress apoptotic signaling pathway is involved in brain damage after repeated seizures, which may provide a new therapeutic target to prevent brain damage caused by epilepsy.